Many highly sensitive people (HSPs) realize as early as in kindergarten (me!) that something is not quite right. I shed more tears than my siblings, friends, and cousins combined, and was flat-out told that these tears were ‘crocodile tears’ and not real. Why? Because they lacked ‘good reason’ — as if feelings ran on logic. In grade school, HSPs like me often get teased for being cry babies. We get in trouble for being too much or too little in comparison to the norm.
MY UNIQUE AREA OF EXPERTISE
Hi there! I'm Dr. Loraine Van Tuyl, and I'm an integrative and holistic clinical psychologist, a certified Depth Hypnosis practitioner, and a shamanic eco psychologist.
I have three decades of professional expertise in helping high achieving, struggling empaths—sensitive, spiritual, and stressed-out experts, executives, and entrepreneurs—become super empaths by teaching them my HEAL LOVE LEAD with SOUL AUTHORITY™ self-care and self-empowerment framework.
My innovative (yet extensively tried-and-tested) self-help system is a seamless and elegant integration of modern psychological expertise, ancient restorative practices, and nature guidance. Its focus is on transforming three core pain points at the root level with ego-eco aligned mind-body-heart-soul practices.
These are the three most common empath challenges experiences at home & work that clients learn to shift into key strengths:
HEAL - Emotional overwhelm –> psychological resilience
LOVE - Conflict avoidance –> authentic relationships
LEAD - Risk aversion –> lasting, positive impact
What CLIENTS and COLLEAGUES say about SOUL AUTHORITY:
Dana Stewart, MSW
Social Worker
"This is a totally unique set of practices, yet also universal. I really love the framework that Loraine has created. I’ve never seen anyone teach it in this way, but it’s drawing on things anyone can tap into: nature, the elements, trees, animals. And each person brings their own understanding and wisdom to the practice, which is all celebrated and incorporated. In fact, each student is their own foundation for the practice, so it’s a very creative process that comes from within, though guided by Loraine!"
Sasha Blum, PhD
Psychologist, UC Berkeley
"Every week, a psychotherapist who works with our students in the community visits with our postdoctoral training group and shares their techniques and trade secrets. The postdocs were blown away by Loraine Van Tuyl’s presentation because she offered them such a new and refreshing perspective. They were particularly impressed by her integration of spiritual practices and wisdom into her therapeutic work with clients, and it has vastly expanded their perspective on the potential of their future work as clinicians."
Mia de Luca, PhD
Professor of Anthropology
"Connecting to my tree guide in my sanctuary has now become a daily practice. Not only does it help ground me, but it reminds me of who I am and what my purpose is here on Earth. I use it in moments of uncertainty, to tackle anxiety, and even to drift into sleep. Even in the depths of a panic attack, finding myself in this sanctuary—with my tree and my guides—allows for a reset. Going into this sanctuary always helps me plug my energy back into a universal source."
WHAT'S A SUPER EMPATH?
A super empath is a well-adjusted, self-actualized empath who's masterful at transforming stress and daily overwhelm into creative inspiration for personal and collective healing. Super empaths are a lot like Mother Trees and Redwoods. They're spiritually mature, generous, and interconnected.
They're optimally wired to serve the greater good, but they're also very susceptible to absorbing tension and negative energy that aren't theirs due to their sensitivity, big hearts, and tendency to put themselves last.
They have trouble advocating for themselves because of their avoidance of conflict and risk. For that reason, they're underappreciated and neglected (at best) and "endangered" (at worst) especially in top positions. They need and benefit from protection, support, and empowerment that compliment their unique strenghts, mindset, and lifestyle.
They thrive when able to set fierce, protective boundaries and when creating transformational impact through their life missions. Some of their empathic abilities and superpowers (when able to align mind-body-spirit) include emotional balance, intuitive brilliance, spiritual clarity, and being mindfully grounded and at ease in the present moment.
AM I AN EMPATH?
Wondering if you may be an empath too? Take this 2-minute free empath test and learn about common challenges that trouble empaths. Find out if you're similar to the professional empaths I work with to help determine if we are a good match.
AM I AN EMPATH? TEST
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF EMPATHS AND HIGHLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE
(about 20% of the population!)
There is a fine line between caring for others vs carrying their pain and problems.
You and I know this well. We've struggled with drawing and holding this line our entire lives.
Because of our big ♥️'s, we excel in caretaking, healing, and transformational roles BUT in regard to our OWN HEALING AND SELF COMPASSION, WE SUCK! We overgive and overextend ourselves, and over-invest our time and energy. We assume too much responsibility for other people's problems and take (carry) them home.
This leaves no time of energy for our day-to-day needs, let alone our biggest soul visions and missions.
Many of the sensitive, gifted, and high achievers I work with have trouble:
- saying NO to awful and demanding supervisors, co-workers, work loads, or jobs
- letting down, disappointing, or not being there for clients who need us . . . 24/7
- challenging the insensitive and hurtful things random strangers or loved ones say
- declining unhelpful or judgmental feedback from friends, family, or authority figures
- confronting others about their slack at home or work (instead of picking it up)
- feeling guilty and selfish for "dropping" others to "indulge" in what energizes us
- regulating our emotions, stress levels, and ability to relax, rest, and rejuvenate
- transforming trauma patterns and mental health issues at the root level—for good
OUR BOUNDARIES WERE CROSSED OR VIOLATED
Energetic boundaries are the mother of all boundaries. They tell us why and when all other boundaries are off.
For example, if you're a people pleaser, you're probably worried about hurting or triggering others ESPECIALLY when these people may actually be the ones mistreating or taking advantage of you! You may be carrying THEIR pain in YOUR body because you're intuitive or psychic and have no clue how to organize, let alone separate and contain domineering, exploitative, or needy energy that belongs to strong and challenging personalities.
You lose your clarity when people say hurtful things that logically "make sense" or "aren't that bad." You don't trust your own feelings to help you set limits because they're intense, overwhelming, and scramble everything up in your head, heart, and body when triggered.
You try to talk yourself out of your "overreactive" feelings and beat yourself up (gaslight yourself) when this only makes matters worse (and makes you prone to getting gaslit by others, especially those with narcissistic inclinations)!
BEEN THERE AND DONE ALL OF THAT! 🤦🏻♀️ THERE IS A BETTER WAY, I PROMISE, AND IT HAS IMPROVED EVERY ASPECT OF MY LIFE. I now re-guard my emotional sensitivity as my greatest gift and most reliable inner compass, and I can't wait to tell you how I did it.
CARE DON'T CARRY MINI-COURSE
I cried at the drop of a hat because I carried a lot. Spent hours fretting about a harsh reprimand or mean look or tone. Preferred to be alone and play in the magical Amazon rainforest that covers 95% of my native Suriname, imagining that I was Mowgli.
After a military coup uprooted my family, we moved to the concrete jungles of Miami. I coped with the loss of my safe sanctuary and most trusted lifeline to my true self during the awkward middle school years by becoming selectively mute, pretending not to speak English. I didn't know how else to hide.
Decades later, my rigorous studies, certification, and extensive training in clinical psychology, shamanic practices, meditation and mindfulness fundamentals, energy medicine, Buddhist psychology, regression therapy, eco psychology, and Depth Hypnosis quantum leaped my healing. Despite these shifts, I continued to struggle with public speaking terror and resisted stepping into my calling as a holistic healer and teacher.
I was most comfortable behind the scenes. Not heard, not seen,
happy as a clam in my small holistic practice . . . playing small & hiding
UNTIL MY BIG SOUL MISSION NO LONGER LET ME GET AWAY WITH IT.
Supported by my dream team of spirit guides, I wrote and shared my story in Amazon Wisdom Keeper: A Psychologist's Memoir of Spiritual Awakening in 2017. Since then, I have talked to audiences, big and small, online and in person, on podcasts and radio shows, at conferences, retreats, and book stores. I'd learned so much about overcoming crippling public speaking fear that I even became a WomanSpeak (transformational Toastmasters) group leader for a few years!
These transformations have allowed me to reach and empower hundreds of other spiritual and super empaths— sensitive experts, soulpreneurs, transformation agents, thought leaders, executive directors, coaches, psychotherapists, and academics—over the decades in fields such as mental health, medicine, social justice, law, engineering, conservation, the arts, business, community organizing, and integrative health.
My amazing clients inspired me to design HEAL LOVE LEAD with SOUL AUTHORITY™, currently my all-in-one, best online course. My primary goal for this course was to boost the natural and intuitive gifts of empaths as I'd done in person. I was delighted that the catalytic impact of my guidance didn't diminish within virtual telehealth spaces. I love the convenience and freedom this has offered me and those I serve.
The icing on the cake was getting discovered by North Atlantic Books during the pandemic and being asked to publish a self-help book with them. Soul Authority: Liberatory Tools to Heal from Oppressive Patterns and Restore Trust in Your Heart Compass was published in April 2022, and it's unbelievable that I can offer expert Soul Authority guidance to anyone anywhere in the world with my online course AND now also my e-book, audio book (read by me!), and soft-cover book. I could not wish for a greater honor ♥️.
It took daily practice to trust myself again . . .
starting with YES-NO questions that I alone could answer.
Questions that you may be asking yourself right now, like:
Does this integrative view of mental health resonate with me? Could my symptoms of mental dis-order be signs of guidance toward greater spiritual order and wholeness?
Would you like to explore if this path of self-discovery and self-empowerment might be right for you? Just click on the button below to schedule a soul strategy session with me.
SCHEDULE A SOUL STRATEGY SESSION
RE-TREE-T© in a SOUL SANCTUARY if:
- You want to restore trust in your intuition, emotions, and heart compass thru an inner sense of mind-body-spirit alignment.
- You want to get clear on who or what to keep in and who or what to keep out of your life–without added outside pressure.
- You're tired of feeling emotionally overwhelmed, overstimulated, and depleted.
- You want to reserve your precious energy, empathic superpowers, and natural genius for people and projects related to your soul purpose.
- You want to unlearn conflict avoidance and become less risk aversive so you can learn the creative conflict resolution strategies and effective leadership skills needed to fulfill your soul mission.
GUEST POSTS
A Ritual To Come Back To Yourself When You Feel Pulled In A Million Directions
in MindBodyGreen
If you were lost in the woods, would you follow a compass that was leading you in circles? Would you stay quiet if the guide you were with insisted that their compass was more accurate than the navigational clues you were picking up from the sun, the mountains, and the current of the river?
Of course not.
And yet, so many of us don't trust our sense of inner knowing on the journey through life.
If High IQ Doesn't Necessarily Make Effective Leaders, What Does?
in Thrive Global
The Glitch That High IQ Can't Fix
Arianna Huffington’s signature “tough-love” intervention in her recent Open Letter to Elon Musk brings an important point to light. Lack of genius is not the reason why Elon’s leadership abilities are currently under fire.
Arianna is well-known for leading Thrive Global’s wellness revolution by challenging negative cultural trends, such as the 24/7 work ethic mass delusion and lack of sleep."
RE-TREE-T© in a SAFE SOUL SANCTUARY
Set up your own inner soul sanctuary with the help of a diagram and a guided meditation read from my book. Master emotional overwhelm by balancing your mind, body, and spirit with an As Above - So Below tree guide.
Anne Lowe, MSW, Social Work Instructor, Psychotherapist
"As a Program Manager of our Tribal Home Visiting Program at the Native American Health Center, I searched hard to find different trainings and workshops to help my staff sustain themselves in the very complex and difficult work that supported some of our most vulnerable community members. Loraine facilitated a way for participants to connect to the deeper reason and purpose for their work. The kind of insight she helped participants engage in went far beyond ‘washing off’ after a tough day at work—participants began to fill their inner well of resources and maintain its on-going use in their work and lives."
What clients & colleagues say:
"I was able to connect with each of the elements, and it was amazing how cleansing, transformative, and powerful each meditation was to break up past densities, thick thought patterns, and to allow fresh, new, expansive, and fun energy back into my life."
Teresa Shen, LAC, Master of Chinese Medicine, CEO/Lead Physician, Eastern Medical Center
"Loraine is the real deal, a one-of-a-kind, true healer. She is immensely gifted and overall just radiates with caring energy. To say that she has saved my life in many ways is an understatement. As she would say, she helped me tap into my own abilities to not only save myself but move in energetic upward shifts toward positivity, power, peace and happiness, fulfillment in life, work and all relationships in ways that I could never have imagined."
Xiao Lin, MS, Writer, Editor, Publicist
"With the help of the elements, and in particular water, I can cry again without getting splitting headaches. Before, I was so emotionally backed up that every time I emoted with tears, I got a migraine. Now, I can cry freely! And this month, the hormonal wave broke so gently upon me, it was like a quiet song being hummed to me from far away and getting closer and closer with each day. No flu-like symptoms, no crashing depression. I am in total awe that such powerful body changes can occur alongside such deep internal healing work!"
Sarah Ginnan, Marketing and Copywriter
"I have never felt as settled or at peace as I have since I have experienced this course. Right after it ended, guilt and fury related to an abusive marriage that ended 17 years ago were for the first time not there and I could support my adult son who’s still struggling with what happened. Now four months later, I still enter my sanctuary and learn from my guides each time I meditate and the old story of abuse is no longer my story. I’m completely free of it (never meditated or worked with guides before taking this 10-week Soul Authority course). Update: This is still true 4 years later. I'll be forever grateful."
Margaret Delph, Warehouse General Manager
J.R. Schumaker, author of Diana's Dragons: The Awaited
"Loraine has a glowing gift for guidance and has birthed a living body of wisdom: an alchemy of her love for humanity, her spiritual and intellectual brilliance, her roots in the rainforest, and her ascent to the highest levels of traditional education. Her work is cutting edge. And comforting center. And inspiring, boundless horizon. I've never trusted a mentor more. After creating a grounded, elementally-balanced inner sanctuary, I was pretty much like, “How was I living without this?” I’m now able to invoke my muse - at will -, feed the flow of my fiction, and grasp the essence of my villain with much greater ease and clarity. I just passed the ultimate test when the most challenging person from my past tried to push all the old buttons. I was so in my authority. I had that strong tree behind me. I had my own mentor voice in my head. I had my elements at my disposal. It was amazing. Sometimes, I just stop and smile and marvel. I'm so grateful."
Karallyn Earls Streit, Shamanic Energy Medicine Woman, Spiritual Catalyst, Shadow Worker
"Loraine is an absolutely amazing individual and healer. I have been taking workshops and classes with her for the last few years, and from the moment I met her have been deeply impressed by her wisdom and brilliance. She is plugged into the world of spirit and energy in a way that very few people are, and has a deep understanding of the nature of reality and how to utilize that understanding and knowledge in her work with others. She is a true wise woman and anyone working with her will certainly be transformed by her presence alone. She brings to the table a deep knowledge of what is called for in the moment and will be indispensable help to anyone working with her."
"As I reflected on the jobs I've had, I realized that I have gotten every job I wanted since completing my social work degree; and these have been very competitive jobs. Loraine has been the thread across time, helping me weave my dreams into reality. Words feel inadequate in moments like this, where my gratitude is deep, abundant and transcendent. Because that is a reflection of how she works: her gift is to connect so deeply with the soul that language waits in reverence as the spirit mends and unfolds to create new stories filled with possibility."
Veronica Garcia, LCSW, Social Worker
"Loraine brings an extraordinary intelligence and spirit with a mastery informed by her personal and professional experience, her vision, and her intuitive knowing. I felt the deep love, understanding, and generosity of spirit that motivates everything she brings. Having a teaching background myself, I can say that the course was designed and structured masterfully. A good balance of live, solo, and group."
Julie Suzanne Brokken, artist, poeta, photographer
